Barbara Keyfitz, Charles Saltzer Professor of Mathematics, will deliver the Noether Lecture at the 2012 Joint Mathematics Meetings, January 4-7, 2012, in Boston, MA. The lecture honors noted mathematician Emmy Noether (1882 - 1935).

Keyfitz was selected by the Association for Women in Mathematics (AWM) for this honor because of her fundamental contributions to the area of nonlinear partial differential equations.

Her research is on nonlinear partial differential equations with emphasis on hyperbolic conservation laws and evolution equations that change type from hyperbolic to elliptic.

Keyfitz opened up a new research direction by developing a novel technique to study multidimensional conservation laws, defining free boundary problems to study transonic shocks.

Her Noether Lecture, Conservation Laws – Not Exactly a la Noether, will address recent developments in hyperbolic partial differential equations and the relationship of conservation law theory to Noether’s famous theorem on conservation laws and symmetry.

Keyfitz has given numerous invited talks on the subject of conservation laws, including a plenary lecture at the 14th General Meeting of European Women in Mathematics in 2009.

In October, 2011, Keyfitz became the first woman president of the International Council of Industrial and Applied Mathematics.

Keyfitz is a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science and of the Society for Industrial and Applied Mathematics.

In 2005, she received the Krieger-Nelson Prize from the Canadian Mathematical Society.

Keyfitz is a Past President of the Association for Women in Mathematics and continues to be active. She is currently chair of the AWM Long Range Planning Committee. Also, she is a Vice-President of the American Mathematical Society.